Here we go, the weeks we’ve all been waiting for. The weeks in the middle of summer where pretty much nothing comes in at all. Although this week we did get two killer reissues which you totally need. Plus, we’ve got A/C. So get off your duff and get over here. Also, no news letter next week. You’ve been warned.
…..pick of the week…..
Besombes/Rizet: Pole (Gonzai) LP
This is a psychedelic masterpiece, a stunning piece of work made mainly by synths from various kinds (VCS, Farfisas, Mellotron, etc), backed up occasionally with drums and other sounds. The tracks are mainly instrumental and takes the listener through a trip, like the gods of psychedelic music intended. “Think the Germans had the market cornered on dark-edged electronics in the 70s? Guess again, because this mid 70s gem from Frenchman Philippe Besombes easily rivals the most progressive work of the Kraut scene of the time! The album’s a collaboration with Jean-Louis Rizet – and features both artists duetting on a variety of analogue electronics – sometimes in a melodic way, but often in more experimental modes that are quite textural at times – and which stand as a key link between initial German electronics in the 70s, and some of the murkier British uses of the instrument a few years later. “This epic album just oozes sanctified mystery, psychic menace and playful insanity and exists in a timeless zone of tripped-out lysergicity all its own. I’ve never heard anything quite like it, nor quite as special for the kind of music that it is (and really, there’s not that much of this kind of thing, from then or now). Have you heard Achim Reichel’s ‘Echo’? That special – but quite different again, in another parallel sphere but just as exalted in my mind and heart. Psychedelic progressive synth-based music doesn’t get much better than this, in my opinion, though it’s clearly not for everyone – some people just find it cold, too weird, and occasionally too repetitive or slow and can’t get into it. It’s the kind of album with heaps of textural depth you need to give time and attention to, and I’d never put it on as background music. It demands to be taken seriously (though it occasionally has some strange fun) and I treat this album as a piece of sacramental music to be played only when all present are prepared to lay back quietly, shut their eyes and let it work its way inside for the next 75 minutes (maybe with a smoke break and breather in the middle!). Indeed, it’s ideal for thorough shamanic journeying without New Age namby-pambying, and after previewing some of the first track when a friend introduced it to me (the same friend and the same time I was introduced to Besombes’ ‘Libra’), I first listened to the whole album whilst tripping on mushrooms, and was utterly blown away. Those two albums changed my life, completely altered my perspective of what was possible on that mind-bending night. Likewise both are still potent aural experiences listened to without psychedelic boosting (and still never fail to impress me), but they are totally and authentically in their element with it – again, even more impressive given the lack of psychedelic experience of the modest genius from whose mind they sprang (although, certainly this collaborative album under review here must give equal credit to Rizet, I still believe most of the insane and often unpredictable creative madness to be heard here derives primarily from Besombes, but both men are brilliant at creating incredible, vivid and deeply psychically affecting synth textures). I can’t guarantee of course that you’ll embrace this stuff as warmly and completely as I have, as I’m a bit of a rarely rabid enthusiast for 70’s Besombes, but you should at least give it a listen to see how it grabs you if you haven’t heard it before and like vintage experimental synth rock. Spoiler alert: if you already think this might be up your alley and you want to listen to it tripping (where legal, of course ;-)), don’t over-familiarise yourself with the descriptions of the music. This is best when you’re not sure what’s coming next. Enjoy! ” Julian Cope, Headheritage
File Under: Electronic, Kosmische, Psych
Listen Here
…..new arrivals…..
Eric’s Trip: Love Tara (Sub Pop) LP
Love Tara is the first full-length album by Canadian indie band Eric’s Trip. It was originally released in 1993. This vinyl reissue is the first time the album has been available on that format in over 15 years. In Cart’s Top 50 Canadian Albums of All Time polls, Love Tara ranked 35th in 1996, and 37th in 2000. It was also ranked 39th in Bob Mersereau’s 2007 book ‘The Top 100 Canadian Albums’. Eric’s Trip hailed from Moncton, New Brunswick. Formed in 1990 when musicians Rick White and Christopher Thompson of The Forest joined Julie Doiron and Ed Vaughnan (who was later replaced by Mark Gaudet of Purple Knight), they took their name from a Sonic Youth song. They emulated the distorted guitar of Dinosaur Jr., the folk leanings of Neil Young, and the lo-fi aesthetic of Sebadoh. Rick White described their sound as “sappy melodic pop music on top of thick distortion.” Eric’s Trip were the first Canadian band to be signed to Sub Pop. The band broke up in 1996, but reunited in 2001, and again in August 2006, to play at the Sappy Records Festival in Sackville, New Brunswick.
File Under: Indie, Lo-Fi, Fuzz, CanCon
Listen Here
Fist City: Everything Is A Mess (Transgressive) LP
Fist City is excited to announce the release of its sophomore LP, Everything Is A Mess, on Transgressive Records. Recorded in October 2014 with producer Ben Greenberg (The Men, Hubble, Uniform) at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, ‘Fuck Cops’ is the first single to be released from the album, which is set to hit the shelves on June 19. Supercharged Southern Alberta quartet Fist City burst from basement studios onto the stage in 2009. The twin sibling duo of Kier and Brittany Griffiths — musical collaborators from the womb to the tomb — found ideal foils in frenetic guitarist/songwriter Evan Van Reekum and powerhouse drummer Ryan Grieve. A solid string of releases from labels such as L.A.’s Dead Beat, Victoria’s La Ti Da, and Transgressive have been coupled with tours at home and abroad, glowing reviews, recording with Don Pyle, a Nardwuar interview, and other thrills. 2014 marked a transitional year, including personal changes among the band members, the reissue of their debut LP, It’s 1983, Grow Up! from Transgressive Records (originally issued by L.A.’s Black Tent Press in 2012) and the recording of Fist City’s sophomore salvo, Everything Is A Mess. The new album, laid down with producer Ben Greenberg (The Men, Hubble, Uniform) at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, finds them primed to take the future by storm. Everything Is A Mess seizes onto the group’s influences, both musical (The Wipers, Sonic Youth, the Flying Nun roster) and spiritual (John Waters and Divine), then sends them into overdrive. Guitars chime like bells or shred like buzzsaws, while the rhythms hit harder than ever before. Lyrics are based on the band’s immediate environments in Lethbridge and Calgary, Alberta with gut-punching reactions to murderers, cops, bigots, Rob Ford, and unrequited love. From life in a small town scene to facing the consequences of violent acts, or even the experience of sleeping in the back of a speeding van, these songs paint a vivid portrait from the minds of artists and outcasts set loose on the world.
File Under: Punk, Garage, CanCon
Listen Here
Fogg: High Testament (Tee Pee) LP
Fort Worth, Texas power trio Fogg will release its new album, High Testament, June 2015 via Tee Pee Records. The record is the follow-up to the group’s 2014 debut, Death, a record that was hailed as “wasted skater doom,“ “witchy, down-tuned zoner psych” and “heavy, tranced-out and freaky as fuck.“ High Testament will drop on cassette via Under the Gun Records, who will co-release the LP version of the album in conjunction with Tee Pee. Fogg worship at the altar of the almighty riff, conjuring leaden tombs of amp-destroying sound. The warped riff-riders – who have been burning up the southern heavy music scene – crank howling psychedelic metal and 70’s biker doom topped with gnarly shredding and strangely unique vocals that hover distantly over landslides of chest-rattling bass and drum tumble. High Testament deals heavy quantities of hazy hooks and woozy timbres, which combine to paint a dreamy aesthetic; a hazy, neon form that sounds like metal chords trapped in a never-ending film dissolve. Enter the Fogg!
File Under: Stoner, Metal
Listen Here
Jaill: Brain Cream (Burger) LP
Jaill’s brand new album “Brain Cream” out on Burger Records!!! First there was Jaill’s “There’s No Sky (Oh My My)” album in 2009, followed by two albums on the renowned Sub Pop!!! Now they’re back on Burger with their best album yet – jangly guitar pop sweetness!!!
File Under: Indie Rock, Pop
Listen Here
Nikolaienko: Sounds of Pseudoscience (Graphical) LP
Graphical Recordings and Muscut have teamed up to co-publish Nikolaienko’s “The Sounds of Pseudoscience” (12″ LP). Nikolaienko’s upcoming full length is a playful and intriguing archive of sounds influenced by the works of electronic music pioneers and experimenters. The album acts as a tribute to early-electronics’ golden era, playing out as a requiem, pondering the theme of nostalgia through warm analogue, space-aged sounds. For the artist, it’s an odd and ironically funny sound document, which he hopes declares some other way that electronic music can be today.
File Under: Electronic, Early Electronic
Listen Here
…..Restocks…..
A Tribe Called Quest: Beats, Rhymes, and Life (Jive) LP
Arcade Fire: Funeral (Merge) LP
Arcade Fire: Neon Bible (Merge) LP
Dan Auerbach: Keep It Hid (Nonesuch) LP
Courtney Barnett: Double EP (Mom & Pop) LP
Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit (Mom & Pop) LP
Beck: Morning Phase (Capitol) LP
Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Rhino) LP
Broadcast: Noise Made By People (Warp) LP
Budos Band: III (Daptone) LP
Nick Cave: Boatman’s Call (Mute) LP
Clean: Anthology (Merge) 4LP
Clutch: From Beale Street To Oblivion (Weathermaker) LP
Colour Haze: CO2 (Elektrohasch) LP
Colour Haze: To The Highest Gods We Know (Elektrohasch) LP
Colour Haze: s/t (Elektrohasch) LP
Colour Haze: She Says (Elektrohasch) LP
Daft Punk: 2007: Alive (Virgin) LP
Daft Punk: Discovery (Virgin) LP
Daft Punk: Homework (Virgin) LP
Daft Punk: Human After All (Virgin) LP
Funkadelic: Cosmic Slop (4 Men With Beards) LP
Fuzz: s/t (In The Red) LP
Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast (Parlophone) LP
Iron Maiden: Power Slave (Parlophone) LP
Lumineers: s/t (Dual Tone) LP
OST: Interstellar (Music on Viny) LP
Pink Floyd: The Wall (EMI) LP
Radiohead: Amnesiac (EMI) LP
Radiohead: In Rainbows (TBD) LP
Radiohead: Kid A (EMI) LP
Radiohead: Ok Computer (EMI) LP
Ramones: Rocket to Russia (Rhino) LP
Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (Abkco) LP
Rolling Stones: Let it Bleed (Abkco) LP
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers (Polydor) 2LP
Run the Jewels: s/t (Mass Appeal) LP
Ty Segall: Manipulator (Drag City) LP
Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks (Rhino) LP
Timber Timbre: s/t (Arts & Crafts) LP
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats: Blood Lust (Rise Above) LP
Ween: Chocolate & Cheese (Plain) LP
Ween: White Pepper (Plain) LP
Ween: God Ween Satan (Plain) LP
Ween: Pure Guava (Schnitzle) LP
Various: Best of Trojan Ska 1 (BMG) LP
Various: Killed By Death 1 (KBD) LP